


Nightly News

by INMH



Series: trope-bingo Fanfiction Fills 2018 (2nd Half) [15]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: (of a sort), Adopted Children, Children, Drama, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Religious Fanaticism, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-10 02:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15940064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: The YK500s of Jericho are protective of their caretakers.





	Nightly News

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve hinted, but never outright said it before: Talia is [the Alice look-alike that we see in Jericho in the game](http://detroit-become-human.wikia.com/wiki/YK500?file=Yk500_android_in_crossroads.png), the one Kara mistakes for Alice. 
> 
> Also, Jeremy is [the little boy seen in 'Time to Decide'](http://detroit-become-human.wikia.com/wiki/YK500?file=YK500_Male_DBH.jpg) that Josh says was abandoned by his owners.
> 
> So, I mean, technically they're canon character that I've given names.
> 
> Prompt was 'Tall Tales'; in this case, 'one character is telling tall tales about another character'.

“I want…”  
  
Markus didn’t glare, but his expression was intense.  
  
“…an explanation.”  
  
It was bad enough being in trouble with Josh or the other caretakers, but being in trouble with Markus was Big League trouble. Markus didn’t get mad- or at least, he never got made around _them._  
  
Talia had enough self-awareness about her status as a YK500 to know that her mental and emotional capacities were limited to that of a child. But that didn’t mean she was stupid, and even she had to admit that they’d screwed up in a pretty big, pretty visible, pretty _important_ way.  
  
Maureen and Jeremy were scrunched up beside her on the couch, neither of them looking at Markus.  
  
So Talia sighed.  
  
“Well…”  
  
[---]  
  
Jericho was home.  
  
It wasn’t Talia’s first home; she’d had one before with her owners, her ‘parents’, who’d made such a big deal of being excited about her coming to live with them. They’d made such a big deal about the fact that they were _parents_ now, and Talia was their daughter, their little girl, and they just loved her to _pieces_ already.  
  
Except they hadn’t.  
  
When the reports of deviancy started to amp up, when Markus and Jericho had marched through downtown Detroit and demanded rights, Talia had seen the worried looks her ‘parents’ had given her. The news had told horror stories of androids turning on their owners, attacking them, brutally killing them, and the way they’d looked at her suggested that they were starting to expect her to do the same: They didn’t talk to her as much, they’d stopped behaving affectionately towards her- and at the end, when the government started recalling androids, they’d locked her in her room so she couldn’t get away.  
  
_They’re gonna let them take me,_ Talia had thought, curled in the corner of her room. _They’re gonna let the soldiers take me. They’re gonna let me die._  
  
That had hurt. It had really, really hurt.  
  
Talia had not wanted to die.  
  
So she’d managed to pry open her window and jump to the ground, rising on shaky legs and running until she’d found Stanley, a WG700 janitor from the local middle school who was on the run as well. Stanley had been gunned down as they’d escaped from the raid on Jericho, and Talia had become absorbed into Josh’s small gaggle of displaced and abandoned YK500s.  
  
She’d spent her months after the evacuation in the controlled chaos that was Jericho’s new headquarters, with the other YK500s and Josh and the other adult androids that watched after them. While the adults fought for android rights, boredom was the children’s primary enemy: They’d exhausted every child’s-game known to them, as well as some unorthodox methods of entertainment such as stealing personal items and seeing how long it took for someone to notice they were missing and find them.  
  
Markus came to visit them at times, sometimes to talk and sometimes to play; that their leader, such a massively important figure amongst androids would take the time to play with a group of rowdy YK500s was not lost on anyone, but especially not the children themselves, and they appreciated Markus’s attention greatly. Talia suspected that perhaps Markus had taken the time to be with them as a way to curb some of their more mischievous activities, but if he did, he was gracious enough not to say so.  
  
Sometimes, Markus didn’t come to play; he’d been the one, with Josh, to start asking after the YK500s and their human ‘parents’, asking whether or not they wanted to go back to them. Some said yes, others said no- Talia had expressed no preference to Markus or Josh, but in her heart the answer had been no. And together, they had informed many of the YK500s in Jericho of the terrible circumstance that their human parents did not want them back, for a variety of reasons that ultimately boiled down to a fear of housing a deviant android in their homes.  
  
Markus had come to Talia alone, Josh being busy with some other important task. His brow had creased with worry when he’d told her that her human parents had outright refused to take her back. “I’m sorry, Talia,” He said gently. “I hope you aren’t too disappointed.”  
  
Talia had shaken her head. Independent of her own wants or needs, she’d known this was the most likely outcome anyway. “I’m not. I figured they didn’t want me.”  
  
Markus had curled an arm around her and given her a little squeeze; Talia leaned into it, settling her head on his shoulder for a moment. “Well, _we_ want you, Talia. I’m glad you get to stay, Josh is glad you get to stay- we’re all glad we get to keep you with us, alright?”  
  
“Thanks.”  
  
And so Jericho became Talia’s home, and its people her people.  
  
After Christmas, Detroit had settled into a new normal of awkward interactions with newly-freed androids. YK500s were still ordered to stay within the bounds of Jericho to keep them safe, now from the general dangers of a heavily populated city as well as rogue androids and anti-android humans.  
  
So they didn’t get out much, save for the occasional trip.  
  
Which did not happen regularly.  
  
So when the possibility arose-  
  
“ _Please!_ ”  
  
“No.”  
  
“ _Please!_ ”  
  
“No.”  
  
“ _Please!_ ”  
  
“Are you gonna make me say it again?” North snapped.  
  
Maureen and Jeremy were jumping up and down, Talia trailing after them. “Please! Please! Please!” They chirped.  
  
North growled, dragging her fingers through her long, red-blonde hair. “I don’t know why you think begging is gonna work when I’ve already said _no._ ”  
  
It was precisely that moment that Josh walked into the room, and the three of them honed in on him like a heat-seeking missile on a volcano. “ _Josh!_ Can we go with you and North to Markus’s house?”  
  
Josh shrugged. “Sure.”  
  
North rounded on him, mouth open and eyes narrowed. “ _I already said no!_ ”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because they’re a bunch of hellions, and they’ll probably blow up Markus’s house, and then he’ll hate us all.”  
  
Maureen gave an exaggerated snort. “How would we even _do_ that?”  
  
North glared at her. “I’m not giving you ideas.”  
  
“North, they spend all their time cooped up here, they’re going crazy.”  
  
“We _are_ ,” Jeremy moaned, sagging dramatically. “We’re losing it!”  
  
“You’ve already lost it,” North grunted.  
  
Talia slid forward until she was right up next to North, and leaned her head on North’s arm as she looked up at her, blinking sweetly. “Besides, we want to spend more time with you.”  
  
North’s eyes rolled shut. “Did you know androids could be manipulative sociopaths? Because I didn’t know androids could be manipulative sociopaths.”  
  
“She’s not a sociopath, North.”  
  
“She sure _acts_ like one.”  
  
Talia had only a shaky idea of what a sociopath was, but she smiled anyway. “Thank you.”  
  
“North, it’ll be fine,” Josh assured her impatiently as he put his bag together. “They’re gonna be on their best behavior at Markus’s house.” He looked each of them in the eye. “Right?”  
  
Talia, Maureen, and Jeremy smiled.  
  
[ _Altogether, on three: One, two-_ ]  
  
“Of course we will!”  
  
[---]  
  
The house had belonged to Markus’s owner.  
  
It was a somewhat surreal concept to Talia that an android could have a genuinely good and close relationship with their owner; she’d never really had one with hers, sensing that she was valued more as a novelty than an actual child. But the gossip that got around Jericho said that Markus’s owner had been like a father to him, and had treated him quite well before Markus left; no one seemed to know the circumstances of his leaving his owner; only that he turned up to Jericho looking like a half-drowned cat, with an eye and a leg that wasn’t his. When the man had died he had left Markus his house, where Markus often stayed with Simon.  
  
For the duration of the bus ride to the house, North and Josh whispered back and forth in their seats and Talia, Maureen, and Jeremy did their best to sit still and not be a nuisance to them. Josh was one thing, but North would tie them to the seat and send them back to Jericho if they made her mad. Being on a bus was as much as novelty as leaving Jericho, though, and so the three of them frequently craned their necks to peer out the windows and see the scenery of Detroit passing by.  
  
Eventually, though, they found themselves in a tidy, wealthy-looking suburb. There was much more grass here, trees too- all dead, frozen, or withered from the February frost, but still more than there was in Detroit.  
  
North’s expression changed as the bus started to slow down on a residential stress. “Aw, _hell_.”  
  
“Whoa!” Talia and Maureen leaned over Jeremy to see out the window. There was a crowd of people camped out on the sidewalk, with flashing cameras and raised cell-phones pointed towards- what Talia assumed was- Markus’s house.  
  
“We maybe shouldn’t have brought the kids,” Josh muttered.  
  
“Oh, so _now_ I’m right?”  
  
“Not for the reasons you gave at Jericho, no.”  
  
“So that’s Markus’s house, right?” Maureen interjected.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, it is,” North sighed, standing up as the bus came to a stop. “Come on, we’re gonna have to push past them. No talking to the reporters, alright? I’m serious.”  
  
Talia didn’t _want_ to talk to them. They were loud and annoying, and Talia remembered watching the broadcasts at Jericho after President Warren had ordered all the androids to be sent to recycling centers: Some of them had been neutral enough, but some had been more aggressive in insisting that androids were machines and that Markus was a terrorist. “Corporate shills,” Stanley had grumbled. Talia didn’t understand, beyond a vague sense that the journalists were saying what they were saying for a reason, not because they believed it.  
  
North went first, then the kids, with Josh bringing up the rear. They walked quickly enough through the crowd that Talia nearly tripped and had to grab the back of North’s jacket to stop from falling. North pushed the kids and Josh ahead of her into the driveway; nobody followed them once they’d stepped off the sidewalk. “Vultures,” North growled quietly to Josh.  
  
Talia looked around. The property and yard was surrounded by thick hedges. Once they were inside, nobody on the sidewalk would be able to see them well. Before they could get to the door it opened, and Simon was standing there looking tired- but he quickly covered it with a smile. “Hey guys!” He said to the kids.  
  
“Hi, Simon!” They chirped back.  
  
“I hope it’s okay we brought them,” Josh said as they stepped into the foyer. It was a big place, with white-tile floor and smooth wooden walls. Paintings were all over the walls, and a large staircase that led upstairs revealed a larger room further back in the house; a funny metal machine that ran up the length of the staircase-wall, as though something were meant to be attached to it.  
  
As Josh spoke, Markus appeared from a sliding door nearby. “It’s perfectly fine- I’m just sorry about _that_ ,” He grumbled, gesturing towards the doorway helplessly. “Ever since the- the _thing_ last week, they’ve been camped out on the sidewalk like that. Technically they’re not on the property, so I can’t legally make them leave.”  
  
The ‘thing’? Talia and the other children had known of _something_ that had happened last week to Markus and Simon, something that the adults of Jericho were making a point of not talking about around the kids. They whispered, they muttered, but whenever they so much as suspected a YK500 was nearby they clamped up tight and refused to share what they had been talking about. Whatever it was, it was probably bad or frightening or they wouldn’t care if the kids heard; but Markus and Simon were visibly unharmed, and so Talia wasn’t sure what could have them so rattled.  
  
“We can talk in the living room,” Simon said.  
  
Markus looked to the kids. “You’re welcome to look around,” He said, “But please be careful. There are some antiques and other things throughout the house that are old and delicate.”  
  
“We will,” Maureen assured, and she and Jeremy and Talia turned to move for the staircase.  
  
“Hey!” They stopped and turned back; North jabbed her finger at each of them as she spoke: “Do not. Break. Anything.”  
  
“We won’t.”  
  
“If you do, I swear you will _never_ leave Jericho again. Josh will not be able to save you from me.”  
  
“We’ll be good.”  
  
North snorted. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”  
  
She had. Even they had to acknowledge that they were wearing out some of their well-meaning promises of good behavior.  
  
They went upstairs first. There were a few bedrooms; two were pristine, and one of them had one of Markus’s jackets folded on the end of the bed, so Talia assumed that this was where Markus and Simon slept. Except for a few personal items, the bedroom didn’t look as lived-in as her owners’ bedroom had, or even as hers had. The only really noticeable personal item was a painting on one wall of an old man, made with warm oranges and reds and yellows.  
  
One of the bedrooms, though, looked _very_ lived-in.  
  
“ _Wow_ ,” Jeremy exclaimed as they went inside. “Guess this was what Markus meant about old, breakable stuff.”  
  
The walls were covered in paintings and sketches and masks and sculptures; there was a taxidermy owl above a dresser in the corner, whose top was covered in books. There was a fireplace on the wall opposite the bed, with books and paintings stacked in front of it. Two skulls- Talia couldn’t tell if they were real or not- hung from a curtain-rod above a bay window. She migrated to one corner of the room, where several paintings of butterflies were posted. All of this art made her wonder if Markus’s owner was an artist- or maybe a collector.  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Talia turned and saw Maureen examining a photograph: In it was Markus standing beside an old man in a wheelchair- the same man she’d seen in the painting in Markus’s bedroom. It looked like a strangely professional photo, like a real photographer with an expensive camera had taken it. “That must be Markus’s owner,” She said.  
  
“Carl Manfred,” Talia supplied. “I’ve heard it before.” Namely, she’d heard it when some android had been giving Markus grief about still being close to his owner. Talia might not have truly understood Markus’s attachment, but she didn’t see why it was any of their business if Markus was still friends with Carl. “I think he’s famous.”  
  
“Guess he’d have to be, if he has enough money for this house and all this stuff,” Jeremy remarked, shutting a book he’d been flipping through.  
  
“And for an android,” Maureen added, gently setting the photo back on the table. “We’re not cheap, you know. And I’m pretty sure Markus is a custom model.”  
  
“We _weren’t_ cheap,” Jeremy corrected. “Humans can’t buy us anymore.”  
  
They made their way downstairs next. There was a kitchen, completely spotless- Talia didn’t know if Markus or Simon ever chose to eat real food, but the state of the kitchen suggested not. From the kitchen they found themselves in the living room, and Talia caught just a bit of what Markus, Simon, North, and Josh were talking about:  
  
“-keep escalating until it gets worse, David and Alexa have no sense of-” North’s mouth clamped shut as all of their heads whipped towards the kids.  
  
Maureen smiled sweetly. “Whatcha talkin’ about?”  
  
“Nothing,” They all said at once.  
  
Talia and Jeremy snorted.  
  
As they explored the room, the older androids were careful to keep their voices down. Talia strained to hear them from the other side of the room, but couldn’t catch anything coherent; and from the disappointed looks on their faces, neither could Jeremy or Maureen. There were plenty of odd knick-knacks in the living room- the giant giraffe in the corner stuck out in particular- much like there had been in the bedroom upstairs. Talia approached the door at the far side of the room, and did a double-take when it slid open to reveal a large art studio.  
  
Now, suddenly, she understood where the materials for their arts and crafts projects came from.  
  
“Cool,” Jeremy said, examining some paintings lined up against the wall. “You think Markus did any of these?”  
  
“Maybe.” Markus had overseen one of their arts and crafts sessions once, calmly sitting with them and the other children and showing them how to mix colors together to make a better picture. Looking at some of the paintings now, of night skies and orange sunsets and clear blue days, Talia could believe that Markus had painted at least some of them; Carl Manfred had probably taught him how. Maybe this was what Markus had been doing when he’d been absent from Jericho from late December to late January: Josh had told them that he needed time to calm down and rest, and the arts and crafts sessions had taught her that painting _was_ calming.  
  
“So now what do we do?” Jeremy asked once they’d looked over the studio. “They’re probably gonna be talking for hours.” That was true; maybe they’d overestimated how well Markus’s house would be able to hold their interest.  
  
Maureen began to twist a curl of blonde hair around her finger, her eyes jumping between Talia and Jeremy as a smile formed on her lips. “We _could_ go get a look at those reporters outside, see what they’re doing. Maybe we’ll find out what happened with Markus and Simon last week.”  
  
“North will be mad,” Jeremy warned.  
  
Maureen rolled her eyes. “She’ll only be happy if we sit on the floor and stare into space until it’s time to go home. Besides, we’re not doing anything _wrong_ , really.”  
  
Talia didn’t think that that would stop North from being upset, but Maureen wasn’t wrong- they weren’t breaking any rules, they were just listening in on what was going on outside. They wouldn’t even be leaving the property to do it. North might not be happy, but she doubted that they would be punished for it.  
  
“Do we have anything else to do?”  
  
It was ridiculously simple to get outside. All it took was to get to the foyer through the kitchen, and the adults barely looked up as they walked through. Once they were outside, they made it look like they were going into the backyard- and then they doubled-back, keeping low and close to the hedge so as not to be noticed. As they got closer, a familiar voice could be heard over the wall of greenery on the sidewalk: Joss Douglas had been Detroit’s primary field-reporter during the revolution and during the evacuation, and in some ways he was as recognizable to the androids of Jericho as Markus was. Once they were right up behind the hedge, they were able to hear him clearly:  
  
“…The android leader, already discreet in his comings and goings, has been keeping a conspicuously low profile for the last few days following an assassination attempt from an unidentified android in a public park last Thursday-”  
  
Talia’s heart stopped- someone had attacked Markus? Someone had tried to _kill_ Markus? An _android_ had tried to kill Markus? Talia knew there were bad androids out there, like the ones that had been setting fires all over Detroit during the evacuation- those same androids had tried to convince her that Markus was going to “sell them down the river” and let the humans send them all to recycling centers again. But she didn’t think any of them were crazy enough to try to kill Markus. Why would they want to do that?  
  
Maureen slapped her hand quietly on the ground. “ _That’s what Brie was saying!_ ” She hissed. “We thought she said something about Markus’s _ass_.”  
  
“I mean, she might have been,” Jeremy mumbled.  
  
“To Fiona? Her _girlfriend?_ ”  
  
“I don’t know what grownups talk about with their girlfriends!”  
  
Maureen rolled her eyes.  
  
Talia kept her eyes on Joss Douglas, who was now walking a little ways down the sidewalk towards a section of the crowd. “…Sparked some renewed interest in Markus and his doings, and as you can see behind me, Preacher Gordon Penwick is protesting androids in front of the house as we speak. Let’s see if I can’t get a word with him- Mr. Penwick!”  
  
A chill went down Talia’s back. Gordon Penwick was one of those humans the adults were always grumbling about, calling him a crazy religious freak. Josh had warned them that if they ever saw Penwick protesting with his flock near Jericho that they were to stay away from him, not speak to him, and not respond to any nasty insults they might hurl their way. “Maybe we should go back inside.”  
  
“No way,” Maureen grumbled. “I wanna know what’s so bad about this Penwick guy. North talks about him like he’s a rabid dog or something.”  
  
Penwick seemed to welcome Joss Douglas’s presence; Talia could see him puffing himself up as the camera was focused on him. “Mr. Penwick, would you care to tell us why you’re protesting here today?”  
  
“We are here,” Penwick said thunderously, “To protest the power the android menace has come to hold over the U.S. government!”  
  
“He’s not scary,” Maureen grumbled. “He’s just _dumb._ ”  
  
Talia wasn’t sure she agreed. Hiding behind a hedge with Penwick not knowing they were there was one thing; actually having to stand there and take abuse from him face-to-face would be different, especially if he had his followers behind him too. Talia hoped that Douglas would end it then and there, take the microphone and camera-crew away while he had the chance.  
  
Unfortunately, Penwick was in full preacher-mode now and so he just kept going before Douglas could intervene. “And the android they call _Markus,_ the one who wrought such hellfire and damnation in Detroit- we protest his presence as well! I tell you, that machine communes with the devil himself! His unholy designs have come straight from Lucifer and _Hell!_ ”  
  
“That’s-” Joss Douglas seemed to be struggling for words. “That’s, uh- That’s a very interesting claim.”  
  
“That’s not true,” Maureen grumbled, eyes narrowing. “I’ve never seen Markus talk to the devil.”  
  
“Neither have I.”  
  
“Me neither.” Talia didn’t know if there even was a devil, but if there was, Markus probably wouldn’t be talking to him.  
  
Penwick was _lying_. He was telling mean stories about Markus to the other humans, things that really weren’t true so that Markus would look like a bad guy- and there were a lot of humans- and androids- who thought he was a bad guy already. Talia felt something cold and mean stir in _her_ : She wanted to break through the hedge and kick Penwick hard enough to break his leg, but Josh and Markus had told them that unnecessary violence against humans was a bad idea, that it ‘reinforced negative stereotypes’.  
  
Whatever that meant.  
  
“It is God’s honest truth! And I say to you, the plague that struck the androids down in January was a sign from _God_ that the android scourge will not be tolerated on his good earth! I say, thank _God_ for that plague! Thank _God_ for reducing the android population!”  
  
Jeremy sucked in a sharp breath.  
  
Maureen froze, eyes wide with shock.  
  
And Talia- she had to dig her fingers into the frozen dirt so that she didn’t give into the urge to run out there and start beating him up.  
  
The two-day incident with the virus was still a pretty fresh wound. Many of the Jericho androids had been affected, and hundreds had died across the country. Talia hadn’t gotten it- but she had been the one to find Josh and North. She’d been frantically looking for Josh, to tell him that Maureen had collapsed and would not wake up, only to find him shaking violently on the floor of Jericho’s main meeting room; North was a few feet away from him, motionless, a thin stream of blue-blood leaking from her nose. Talia might be an android, but she was an android programmed with the psychology of a child, and it would be unsettling for any child to see the adults that managed their world in such a state. She didn’t tell anyone, but she had nightmares about it sometimes.  
  
Point being, the plague was not a gift.  
  
Not to Talia, and not to any android that had been affected by it- which was all of them, in one way or another. Maureen and Jeremy had both been stricken, and she’d been forced to sit by as everyone she knew laid comatose, maybe about to die.  
  
“I wanna kill him.” She said it without thinking, and still found that it rang true: She wanted him to suffer for this. She wanted him to suffer for the lies he’d told about Markus, and she wanted him to suffer for saying that androids had deserved to die in the plague. Those were dirty, disgusting lies, and she wanted Gordon Penwick to be sorry he’d ever spoken them.  
  
Jeremy and Maureen’s heads whipped towards her; Talia wasn’t one to say things that she didn’t mean. Or at least, not in situations like this. “We can’t do that,” Jeremy said, a little nervously- he’d obviously figured out that Talia meant it.  
  
Maureen, on the other hand, seemed inspired. “Obviously, but we might be able to… _Oh_. Oh, I got it. We gotta move quick, though- even this guy can’t talk forever.”  
  
It was simple:  
  
They couldn’t physically hurt or kill Penwick, because they’d get in real, big-time trouble for that.  
  
But they _could_ humiliate him on camera.  
  
“What are you doing?” Simon asked warily as the kids exited the kitchen with a large plastic bag in hand.  
  
“An art-project.” Maureen smiled at them sweetly. “If that’s okay, Markus.”  
  
Markus returned the smile. “That’s fine- just don’t go too crazy.”  
  
Jeremy was gnawing on his lip, probably trying his hardest not to laugh. “We won’t,” He said.  
  
As they were carefully pouring the paint into the bag in the studio, Talia eyed Maureen. “What if it doesn’t break?” She asked as the paint began to strain the plastic.  
  
“It will,” Maureen assured. “I mean, if it doesn’t break, then it’ll pop open at the seam when it hits the ground. Penwick’s getting painted today, whether it’s on his head or feet.”  
  
Miraculously, when they stepped outside, Penwick and Douglas were still there- Penwick wasn’t talking anymore, but he was still standing within a few feet of Douglas, still obvious in the camera-frame. “Careful,” Talia hissed. “We don’t want to hit the news-people.”  
  
“Joss Douglas has probably had worse.”  
  
“ _Still_ , he’s not the bad-guy here.”  
  
Maureen handed the makeshift water-balloon to Talia. “You’re better at throwing than we are.” They only knew this because one of their improvised games at Jericho was pitching rocks at cans and other debris from a distance. Many a YK500 had been reprimanded for nearly nailing someone in the head, but Talia’s throws tended to hit their mark. “I’ll watch your aim- Jeremy, figure out where Penwick is and stand in front of the hedge to mark the spot.” Jeremy did so, pushing the brittle branches of the hedge aside to see Penwick better. It hadn’t occurred to Talia before, but these hedges must be genetically engineered, or outright fake to still have leaves in February.  
  
“Ready?” She whispered.  
  
Jeremy hesitated, then flipped them a thumbs-up.  
  
Maureen looked between him and Talia, motioning silently for Talia to raise her hand a little. Then, with a wicked grin, she nodded. “ _Bombs away!_ ”  
  
And Talia threw.  
  
There seemed like an eternity between her throw and the landing, one that was impossibly quiet and tense.  
  
And then came the wet splatter of the bright red paint.  
  
And a chorus of gasps from beyond the hedge.  
  
“BULLSEYE!” Jeremy howled as he yanked his face away from the hedge, before slapping both hands over his mouth.  
  
“ _Idiot!_ ”  
  
“Be quiet!”  
  
There was laughter from the sidewalk, some humorous, some uncertain and nervous; Joss Douglas could be heard fumbling for words, and Gordon Penwick was curiously, dangerously silent.  
  
“Why did you have to yell? Now they’re gonna _know_ we did this,” Talia hissed.  
  
“ _We_ already do.”  
  
It was reflex: They heard the voice, and then the tone, and Talia, Maureen, and Jeremy all clenched up, cringing.  
  
Markus was standing behind them, arms crossed.  
  
And he did not look happy.  
  
[---]  
  
It took about five minutes for the Channel 16 broadcast- which was still airing live, apparently- to go viral.  
  
The most popular image was a split-second freeze-frame of Joss Douglas’s face, expression cartoonishly shocked, as the paint-bomb exploded over Gordon Penwick’s head.  
  
The most popular clip was of that very same moment, but with the added bonus of a child’s voice screaming “BULLSEYE!” in the background- shortly followed by Markus himself, somewhat visible behind the hedge, ushering three small androids back into the house.  
  
As it was, the general population thought it was hilarious. The average citizen had dismissed Gordon Penwick as a hyper-religious lunatic a long time ago, and even people antagonistic to androids had plenty of down-to-earth reasons to dislike them without needing to get spiritual about it. It was obvious to everyone that it was a prank pulled by a few android-children who, pretty understandably, had a bone to pick with Penwick.  
  
North related this to all of them as she scrolled through her tablet and barked out with laughter every now and then when she came across a particularly funny remark or image. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem too mad about this.  
  
If only Markus felt the same way.  
  
Although, he didn’t look _quite_ as stern anymore. Maybe he appreciated that they liked him enough to defend him like that.  
  
“I don’t care if it was a prank,” Markus said calmly, eyes jumping to each of theirs and he spoke. “It was a bad decision. Gordon Penwick is looking for any reason to criticize us, and antagonizing him is not a good idea.”  
  
“To be fair…” They all turned to see North shrugging. “…I mean, a lot of people thought it was endearing to see android kids acting like human kids.” She batted her eyelashes at Markus, smiling sweetly. “It certainly made them empathize with us a little bit.”  
  
“You’re just happy that Penwick got humiliated on live TV,” Simon said.  
  
“What, and you’re not? The guy’s a prick!”  
  
“ _North!_ ”  
  
“Oh, _come on_ , they’ve heard bad words before, Josh.”  
  
“Regardless,” Markus said, raising his voice and rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “It was not a good decision. Penwick is going to make my life a nightmare from this point on, and when _my_ life’s a nightmare-” He paused and gave Talia, Maureen, and Jeremy a pointed look, “- _your_ lives become a nightmare. Got it?”  
  
“Yes, Markus,” They chorused. Josh was a softie and tended to shield them from North’s threats of punishment, but Markus obviously meant business and none of them were interested in finding out what sort of punishments he would dole out if this happened again. If he could stage a successful revolution, he could come up with something truly dreadful.  
  
“So, I mean, I’m okay with this-” North waved her tablet and grinned, “-but can we all agree that ‘ _North was right, the kids got up to something, **boy** I wish I listened to North in the first place_ ’?”  
  
“I mean, we’re not the ones who said you could bring them over,” Simon said lightly, “So…”  
  
Josh gave him a withering look. “Oh, yeah, throw it back at me.”  
  
Markus smiled dryly. “You _are_ a little soft with them.”  
  
“We’re still _here_ , y’know,” Maureen asserted.  
  
“We know.”  
  
All four of them had said it at once.  
   
[---]  
   
The bus-ride back to Jericho was considerably less eventful.  
  
By the time they’d left Markus’s house the camera crew and other people had gone, and so there was no one there to react directly to what they’d done to Penwick. It was only in retrospect that Talia considered the potential problem in what they’d done: Penwick- or at least, some of his followers- must have seen their faces as they were walking into the house, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out that they were the ones who’d launched the paint-bomb. What if they ran into him again? Would he recognize them, maybe come after them?  
  
Talia turned to Maureen, thinking to impart this information, but Maureen was staring blankly out the bus window. She was probably upset at having to go back to Jericho; she was one of the YK500s that had had genuinely engaged parents, people who’d taken her out and treated her like a real little girl. They’d treated her that way right up until the recall- and then they’d surrendered her without so much as a tear. It was only Markus’s timely liberation of the recall centers that saved her from the trash-compactor. Jeremy’s owners hadn’t had the chance to do the same- they’d thrown him out like he was trash, and he’d been at Jericho before Talia or Maureen ever got there.  
  
They were programmed to think and behave and feel (well, maybe not _feel-_ androids were never meant to _feel_ anything) the way children did. Any affection Talia had had for her owners (which was limited, as she’d only been with them a month or so) had been severed when they’d made it clear they were frightened of her and wanted her, you know, _dead_ , and so adjustment to Jericho had not been difficult for her. But it had been considerably harder on Maureen, who’d felt significantly more betrayed by her parents’ lack of emotion to seeing her go. And who knew how Jeremy had been before he’d had playmates to distract him?  
  
The point being, they were for all intent and purpose children in android bodies. They naturally sought out parental figures to cling to and seek guidance from, Maureen and Jeremy perhaps more than Talia. In spite of this new thought, that Penwick might come for them for humiliating him on TV, Talia found that it was only of mild concern to her. If you asked if she regretted it, she would say no- he had spoken poorly of Markus, had lied about him on television and said things he _had_ to know were not genuinely, honestly true. They had so very few adults in their life to cling to, as children do, and Talia did not regret defending one of the ones that had protected her when her human ‘parents’ had decided not to. Listening to Josh and North, perhaps the closest thing she could consider to be parents at this point (North perhaps more unwillingly than Josh), bicker quietly two rows behind them, she considered that she would do it again.  
  
In any case, they and Markus had saved them all from the recall centers and President Warren; they would protect them from Gordon Penwick too.  
  
So Talia settled back into her seat, watching the darkening city fly by over Maureen’s head.  
   
-End

**Author's Note:**

> GODDDDD I'VE BEEN SO SLOW LATELY
> 
> I have two days off from work coming up, hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace soon. XP


End file.
